st. peter julian eymard: duties of a christian

8/3/2019 St. Peter Julian Eymard: Duties of a Christian

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An excerpt from Eucharistic Handbook: for the members of the Peoples Eucharistic

League, by St. Peter Julian Eymard.

What are the duties of a Christian, of an adorer towards the Church?

Every Christian has to fulfill towards the Church the four duties of the fourth

commandment of God. And as spiritual fatherhood is greater than physical father-

hood, so our duties towards the Church must enjoy primacy of honor and of fidelity.

Now, the fourth commandment commands us to honor our parents, to love

them, to obey them, and to assist them in their needs: such are the duties of Chris-

tians towards the Pope, the bishops, and the priests, each according to the order of

his dignity and of his mission in the Church.

Article I Honor

We must honor the Pope as the visible Vicar of Jesus Christ. He is the Teacher of

teachers, the Father of fathers, the Master of masters; that is why he wears the tiara,

the triple crown of Jesus Christ.

To the Sovereign Pontiff therefore we own sovereign honor and supreme respect;

he is Jesus Christ in the divinity of His mission on earth.

Then to the Bishop, we owe high honor and profound respect; he is the hand,

the heart, the mouthpiece of the Pope, and of Jesus Christ; he is a prince of theChurch, seated on the steps of the pontifical throne and sharing in the spiritual

royalty of the Sovereign Pontiff.

To the pastors, to the priests, we owe religious respect and angelical honors; they

are the angels of the New Testament, the ambassadors of heaven, the ministers of

God.

To despise the priest, to sin against him, would be to sin against Jesus Christ

himself. He who despises you despises Me, said the Saviour. He has again said

through the Prophet: Lay no hand on them ... servants anointed. A violation of

this command calls for the most terrible chastisements.

For he who sins against the priest strikes at the teacher, the mainstay, the channel

of Catholic Faith; and he is himself justly punished by the weakening and loss of

faith.

And since, usually, there is no remission of sins without the priest, no Eucharist

without the priesthood, and no charity without this fire which feeds it unceasingly,

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he who no longer believes in the priesthood is lost.

That is why the enemies of Jesus Christ attack the members of His priesthoodwith such treachery and fury, as the best means to paralyze the power of faith and

destroy religion in the heart of the faithful.

The spiritual battle of the antichrist will center on the priesthood and the Sac-

rifice, said the Prophet Daniel. This battle has already begun and is growing in

intensity.

Let the faithful therefore beware of the devilish stratagems of their enemies who,

in order to destroy faith in their priests, never cease to point out their human frailties

and, if need be, to calumniate them so as to render them despicable and an object

of scandal to the faithful.

Let the faithful close ranks around their priests as around their spiritual com-

manders; let them defend their divine mission and honor their priesthood; let them,out of filial piety, overlook the failings of human nature to which Jesus Christ leaves

his priests subject in order to keep them humble and to oblige the Christian to

practice charity and supernaturalize their faith.

Article II Love

We love the mother that has given us life, the father that insures our upkeep and

devotes himself for our good.

Well, the Church is the mother of our souls. She has brought us into the world

for Jesus Christ amidst the sufferings of martyrdom. She give us spiritual life that noone can take away from us. She educates us for life eternal that through Jesus Christ

we may share Gods very glory and happiness. A tender and watchful mother, she

guides and sustains our steps amidst the perils and dangers of life, defends us against

the attacks of our enemies, dresses our wounds, works and suffers with us; and she

will not leave us until our eyes are closed to the light of day, our last words have

crossed our dying lips, and our heart has stopped beating. Then, taking our soul,

she lifts it to the bosom of God, its Creator and Savior, after having purified it and

blessed it and clothed it with her merits. Her love will even follow it to purgatory;

there she can still use her power of expiation and of prayer. Her mission of salvation

stops only at the gates of heaven.

Who can help loving such a good and tender mother?

Who can also help loving the Pope, the common Father of the faithful, to whom

Jesus Christ has given a heart as great as the world and greater than all our needs?

And who will refuse to the Bishops, to the shepherds of our souls, the filial piety

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that lightens their burden, formidable even to angels, that encourages their zeal,

consoles them in their tribulations and comforts them in their sufferings? They arefathers, fathers of an immense family, fathers with no support other than the Divine

Providence that has sent them into the world like Jesus Christ.

Article III Obedience

Every Christian owes to the Supreme Head of the Church, in all that concerns his

divine mission, an obedience of faith at the risk of becoming guilty of rebellion or of

heresy: If he will not listen to the church, then count him all one with the heathen

and the publicans.

Even against civic rulings (which is such cases have neither authority nor juris-

diction) the Christian owes filial obedience to Canon Law, to the Papal Bulls, to the

decrees and decisions of the Holy Roman Church, which are but the voice, the law,

the teaching of the Sovereign Pontiff.

The obedient Christian goes beyond the commandment of the law and of au-

thority. He consults the intention of the legislator, whose counsels are orders. He

wants in all things to think and speak and act like his father in the Faith.

This same obedience is also rendered to the Bishop as the Shepherd closest to

us, who transmits in all their purity and genuineness the teachings of the Church,

the infallible word of Peter; who keeps watch over the deposit of Faith, the integrity

of morals, and the strict observance of the divine and ecclesiastical laws; and who

holds the powers to legislate and teach in matters of morals and doctrines.We owe again this same obedience to our immediate Pastor in the discharge of

his pastoral office. The Bishop and the Pope Govern us through him. He has to

give God an account of all the souls entrusted to him. The faithful sheep of the fold

follow their Pastor; they know his voice and they obey him.

Article IV Assistance

A child owes assistance to his aging or needy parents; that is the price one must pay

if he is to come off with honor as a son. His happiness consists in fulfilling this

duty.The Christian owes assistance to the priest of Jesus Christ, his father in the Faith,

and the minister of the Most Holy Eucharist.

Christian sentiment would revolt at the mere though of a Pastors not having

even the bread of charity and the assistance usually given to the needy.

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The faithful, however, should assist their pastor especially in their works of zeal

for the salvation of souls, in what concerns the decorum and dignity of the articlesof worship, in the Christ-like care of the sick. These works, under the direction and

the grace of the priesthood, are truly apostolic and consistently productive of good.

The ungodly pool their strength for evil purposes; the good should do as much for

sacred purposes. To the associations of evil men who are becoming so powerful,

we must oppose the associations of faithful souls. An isolated effort for good is too

weak, and it dies out with the one that starts it.

But to which works should we devote ourselves in preference to others? To

Catholic works, to those which have the approval of the Church, and which the

priesthood inspires and blesses; for error can easily creep in under cover of pious

works, and even disguise itself as piety. When confronted with a work, we must

first look into its legitimacy, whether it comes from the Church, whether its end isChristian and the means it employs faith-inspired. A work that is only human or

philanthropic, that limits itself to the body, to matter, is a work for a philosopher,

but not for a Christian.

But among works, we must devote ourselves more to those that give greater glory

to our Lord, that have as their direct object the honoring of His divine Person, the

exaltation and recognition of the rights of His kingship. For the divine Head of the

Church must have in everything the first-fruits of our service and devotion.

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st. peter julian eymard: duties of a christian

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